Sometimes it is hard to believe Xherdan Shaqiri plies his trade with Stoke City, not any of the top six teams in the premier league or elsewhere in other top leagues across Europe. A player with so much quality, strength and vision.

Bayern found him surplus to their demands and offloaded him. Lately, Liverpool have shown interest and with his performances against Brazil and Serbia, Jurgen Klopp will find competition for his signature.

Switzerland increased their tempo and intensity as the game wore into the third quarter. With the introduction of Breel Embolo, Serbia stepped back to try and fight for a point and little did they know they were calling for their death. Shaqiri had sent a long range ball wide off the mark but a through ball from Embolo saw the Stoke man shake off a chasing Switzerland defender and slide the ball between the goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic’s legs to claim all three points for his country and walk away with man of the match award. His team could have had a second but the selfish aspect of his game saw him rattle a shot on a defender.

By Ashraf Habib